IT Salary 2009: A Tri-state View

Bluewolf, an IT job placement agency based in New York, has recently published its 2009 IT Salary Report for the Tri-state Area (N.Y., N.J., Connecticut) which features numbers for both 2008 and 2009 for comparison. It is important to note that these numbers are predictions based on Bluewolf's experience in the IT space, as in numbers the agency sees regularly from jobs in demand (and placed) and numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Below I have listed the 2009 numbers only, but the overall stats can be summarized this way: Salary numbers at the high end of each category are, as expected, down overwhelmingly, but average salary levels are holding steady. The other thing to note is that in many categories the bottom or entry-level salaries in most positions have fallen some. The bottom line is that it has become much more of an employer's market--even in IT.

Anecdotally, I would suggest that these salary numbers represent the highest you will probably see (and maybe even inflated) in the United States, with Silicon Valley numbers coming in close. And based on Bluewolf's own assessment, Bluewolf appears to back me up.

In the introduction to the numbers, Bluewolf says, "It is important to note that with the majority of our experience being in the New York area, our numbers may appear inflated when held against a national average. Salary ranges tend to be approximately 25 percent higher in the Northeast and on the West Coast, while in New York they tend to be 50 percent higher than the national average."

The main issue I have with the information is that Bluewolf does little to try and explain the few changes that show an improvement. Why are network managers seeing a 14 percent salary spike? Why are average e-commerce analysts seeing a 5 percent raise? I don't see anything from Bluewolf that attempts to explain these two bright spots, and I would not begin to try and explain them right now.

My gut tells me these prediction numbers may not be showing the full picture in a down economy when so much of the average numbers are flat. You can compare these numbers and trends with research from CIO Insight. (PDF)